Tree swallow breaks the book

10:42 PM,
Mar. 7, 2013

Written by

YuLee Larner colsig

O ur book - "Birds of Augusta County" - lists the five species of swallows that spend the summer in our area. Our records show that of these, the northern rough-winged swallow and the barn swallow usually arrive in March and the bank swallow and cliff swallow follow in April. Only the tree swallow arrives in February. Our earliest arrival date was Feb. 20, 2010.

The tree swallow "broke the book" when three were seen flying over Lyndhurst on Feb. 14, six days earlier than our previous record. One was seen the next day at the same location and another one at the sewage treatment plant in Stuarts Draft.